JUST IN: Why EFCC must be immediately sanitise INEC – Adeniran

If the Independent National Electoral Commission could be filled with up to 100 officials linked to the $115m allegedly disbursed by Diezani-Madueke, a former minister of Petroleum Resources, it means that elections in the country have often being given out to the highest bidders.

She was said to have disbursed the money during the 2015 election which was later won by Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The report said the acting chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Magu and the chairman of INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, would be meeting in Abuja to finalise the charges that would be filed against the suspects.

Adeniran, who noted that electoral crimes serve as precursors for corruption in the governance, said: “From these reports, it can be easily deduced that Nigeria’s democracy is regularly put up for auction to the highest bidder.

“Any electoral official that perpetrates political corruption, which usually leads to the throwing up corrupt government are culpable in the helping looters to the corridors of power.

“They easily put up the mandate of the people up for sale. For years, Nigerians have remained victims of bad leadership which has a strong linkage to failures and corrupt practices perpetrated by electoral officials mostly during elections.

“We commend the EFCC for not leaving any stone unturned in their investigations while also calling for the prosecution of Diezani-Madueke, and every other electoral official that took the bribe.

“In the same vein, we are urging the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to begin a review of the electoral commission in order to come up with ingenious protocols to forestall or eradicate any corrupt tendencies in subsequent elections.

“If we do not cleanse our government and electoral process from corrupt elements then our government would inevitably become a den for thieves.”

The anti-corruption crusader added: “The anti-graft agency and the electoral commission should continue to publish the names of all officials who received bribes so that Nigerians can continue to identify them as the dishonest lots who sold the peoples’ mandate to the highest bidder.

“We call on the government to cleanse the electoral system to forestall corruption in governance.”